Category Archives: Slimming World

It is no secret I need a good diet. I have tried everything from Atkins, gluten free, meat free, 5:2, juicing to plain old starving myself. Some of it works briefly, some not at all, but what I have learnt is that none of it is sustainable. The only one I surprisingly felt ok doing was the juice diet, mainly because I was drinking so much I was never hungry,but you can only do liquids for so long, so every now and then I’ll do a three day juice cleanse to re-set my body if I have had a particularly bad week but other than that, these “diets” for me just don’t work. And right there is why, they were diets and not a lifestyle change – which was what I am in desperate need of. So I joined Slimming World. All I can say is wow. I can eat so much food it’s not a diet, and I am finding it SO easy!

What is Slimming World?

I would basically call it the food lovers diet, simply because you can eat so much, you can have naughty treats (Syns) and not feel guilty, and it is incredibly easy to maintain. It has changed now and gone are the Red and Green days, instead it is Extra Easy and Extra Easy SP. It is all about Food Optimising and combinations of food that speed up your weight loss whilst keeping you fuller for longer. It is broken down into three basic categories: Free Foods, Healthy Extras and Syns. You need to incorporate all three for this to work, for you to maintain and not feel deprived of food.

Free Food

Free Foods are the best bit – you can have as much as you want, no weighing, measuring or calorie counting. Free Foods include:

Fruit

Vegetables

Fish

Meat and Poultry

Meat Replacement

Eggs

Rice and Pasta

Beans, Peas and Pulses

Some dairy products

Basically pile your plate high with pasta or potatoes if you fancy it -it’s all about what you eat with it that makes it work, the important bit being Speed Foods marked with and “S” in the bible you get for joining. For example, you want Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner, go for it pile on the pasta and the meat, your speed food will be the veg you have with it, and make the sauce with passata to keep it Syn free!

Healthy Extras

Healthy Extras are the bits you can’t eat so much of, but you must still have one of each a day. You will have an “A” choice (hexa) being dairy foods high in Calcium such as cheeses and milk, and your “B” choice (hexb) will be items high in Fibre such as some cereals, bread, canned soups, nuts and seeds. This was a tiny struggle for me as I always use mozzarella cheese as my healthy extra A choice but I can only have 50g a day and anything else dairy I use my Syns for. Sounds adequate for some, but cheese is definitely my favourite thing in the world so it is hard to weight it out and put the rest away.

Syns

Syns are the good bits of food you really love, chocolate, crisps, naught cereals, ice lollies, alcohol and basically everything I have way too much of. The way it works is you have 5 to 15 Syns a day so you don’t feel deprived, so if you want a jam and cream doughnut you can have one, but it will cost you 12 Syns! You can be flexile with your Syns, so if you want to save them for the weekend you can, but always set a new goal to stay within your allowance and keep you on track.

Food Diary

That may all seem a bit much for someone who has no clue what Slimming World is, but I promise it is way easier than it sounds! Here is a typical weekday for me, as I work in an office it can be easy to pick at food, but I have managed to rope three of my colleagues into joining so it is much easier for me now!

I generally pick at blueberries during the day at work, and at around 3pm I have a cup of tea (1/2 syn)

with 2 jaffa cakes (5 syns)

Day finished with 5.5 syns out of 15.

I am a creature of habit, so I actually eat the same things most days for ease, unless I want a lie in then of course I have two Rocky Road Hi-Fi bars (which are AMAZING but only available for purchase from the class, but I hear you can buy them from Ebay!) and my fruit on the way to work. All diet drinks are FREE, so I drink a LOT of Diet Coke!

Weight lost

This is the exciting bit, I have done no exercise at all, and literally the only thing I have changed is what I eat, and I actually never used to have breakfast so now I eat even more! I went to my first weigh in on Wednesday and lost 5lbs!

Whilst writing this I am nearly through my second week, and I have had a sneaky go on the scales and I have got say I am VERY pleased with the results so far! I have a few recipes I want to try so stay tuned and follow my food diary over on Instagram.

If you are on Slimming World and have any tips or recipes you want to share we would love to hear from you!